What Is A Happy Jar And How Can It Help You Manage Your Depression

Out of all my mental health conditions, I honestly think that depression is the one I find hardest to manage.

Once it takes hold, no amount of logic can fight it and it can leave me feeling worthless, drained and wanting to give up.

I’ve tried lots of different techniques over the years, but the one that I’ve found to work best is a Happy Jar – sometimes known as a Memory Jar.

It’s basically a giant collection of all your happy memories, achievements and just general things that make you smile.

Whenever I start to feel worthless or like I’ll never achieve anything with my life (which happens more often than I like to admit), I’ll use my happy jar to look back at everything I’ve already achieved in my life.

Getting a first class honours degree at uni, the pride on my parents and Chris’s face when they saw me graduate, becoming self employed and even being featured in newspaper and magazine articles.

But on top of that, I also include funny stories and happy memories that always make me smile.

Things like jumping up and down with my dad at a Status Quo concert to Rocking All Over the World, exactly 10 years after he nearly died of a heart attack. Going to my first ever gig (which was Fall Out Boy in case you’re wondering) and “yes we’ve established that one”, which is a joke that only my friend Abby will understand, but that still makes me laugh to this day!

It can be really hard to think of things at first, so I tend to scroll back through my photos and memory books and see if that triggers any memories.

If you’re still stuck after that, try asking people what they think your biggest achievement is or for a funny story/happy memory you both share.

So How Do You Make A Happy Jar?

They’re super easy to make, all you really need is a jar (or any kind of container/box really), a pen and some paper.

You can make your jar as fancy or as minimalistic as you like.

I keep mine quite basic but I saw some incredible ones on Pinterest when I was originally browsing through for inspiration.

Once you’ve picked (and possibly decorated) your container, you just need to add the memories. These can be one word written on piece of paper torn from a note book, or a few paragraphs written on a fancy post it note.

It all depends on the size of your container and how much effort you want to put into making it.

You can also use pictures, ticket stubs and your favourite quotes.

My happy jar is pretty small, so I use a separate memory book (aka an old photo album) to store my photos, tickets, pins and other items; as they wouldn’t fit in my jar.

Using Your Phone As Your Happy Jar

This is the main way I use my happy jar these days, as its much more convent and you can view it anywhere.

It’s not exactly practical taking a jar and two memory books with me whenever I leave the house!

Having a happy jar on your phone is basically the same as having a physical one – you simple add all your happy memories, achievements, photos and quotes to a notes file on your phone. Then whenever you need to use it, simple open it up and scroll through everything you’ve saved on there.

Personally I find this version a lot easier to use and maintain.

You don’t need to get your pictures printed off, you can update and use it no matter where you are and its easier to make it look nice with emojis.

The only problem is if you could loose your phone or accidentally end up deleting the file, which is why I have mine synced up to the cloud and I make a backup of it ever few weeks.

It’s never happened to me yet, but technology and me don’t get on so never say never!

This is a great idea for those with depression or even just for anyone to add a bit of extra positivity to their lives. I actually did this a few years ago (and I mean like, 2014 or something) but I gave up (as I do with most things). I often feel the whole “worthless going nowhere” thing too so it’s always good to look back and see what you’ve achieved!

Thanks ☺️ I don’t update mine as often as I should, it’s much easier to have it on my phone! But I’m trying to keep it updated this year…let’s see how long that lasts 😂 I’m sorry you struggle with feeling worthless though – you’re definitely not! You’re actually one of my business/blogging inspirations ☺️

This is a really lovely post. I’ve been struggling a lot recently so I might make one of these myself. When I’m struggling I often look to creative outlets as a way of helping myself feel better, so I think making a happy jar would definitely come to good use.

I love this idea. I used to have a happy jar or I called it a memory jar and I kept it going for a whole year and whenever I was feeling down I looked at some of the memories, I also found at the end of the year too it was super fun going through it all!

That seems like a great idea. It could be good to create the list of accomplishments with a supportive friend. I recently did a training where we were evaluating the qualities we looked for in our ideal job and we had to list four successes in our life. I realized by doing that exercise that I had some “successes” that aren’t really labeled in my brain as things I’m proud of, but it helped to have other people acknowledge that they were absolutely accomplishments.

I haven’t used a happy jar myself but I have heard of them, I did have a happy journal once where my friends contributed by writing me messages. It made me feel loved. I like your idea of having a happy jar on your phone! That seems great as it will always be with you whereas the happy jar could be at home. Depression can hit you anywhere.

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HI THERE!

Thanks for stopping by! I’m a twenty-five-year-old digital media graduate with a passion for writing and a desire to change the way we view mental health and autism. I’ve owned jademarie.co.uk for nearly two years now, and its slowly changed from a place where I would brain dump whatever was going through my head that day, into a place where people can come for help, advice and hopefully a bit of a laugh. I do occasionally come out with a witty sentence or two. Mostly by accident.